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Even as sexual assault allegations tanked his Senate run, Alabama candidate Roy Moore was targeted by two Democrat-linked online operation. One tried to link the conservative with a fake anti-alcohol campaign and alienate voters.<\/p>\n
Comprising a Facebook page and Twitter feed, \u2018Dry Alabama\u2019 looked like it came right out of the Puritans playbook: Graphic images of car wrecks and domestic abuse accompanied calls for a statewide alcohol ban in Alabama, along with an exhortation to all good Christian voters: \u201cPray for Roy Moore.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Today we learned of yet another Democratic party-linked disinformation campaign aimed at Alabama voters. This one sought to link Roy Moore to a fake Baptist movement to ban alcohol called “Dry Alabama”. https:\/\/t.co\/SdC6bocBht<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) January 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n The campaign wasn\u2019t the work of hardcore, teetotalling conservatives, however, but of a progressive group out to split Moore\u2019s supporter base \u2013 between the pro-alcohol business conservatives and anti-alcohol hardliners \u2013 and guarantee a win for his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, a New York Times report<\/a> has revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cRe-enact Prohibition and make Alabama dry again!\u201d<\/em> read one post, cooked up not by a Birmingham pastor, but a Democrat hiding behind a fake online persona.<\/p>\n The group responsible was cybersecurity company New Knowledge, a firm that ironically claims to specialize in \u201cprotecting brands from social media disinformation attacks.\u201d <\/em>Among the staff who worked on the \u2018Dry Alabama\u2019 campaign was Evan Corer, a progressive activist, who according to the Times works for a government office handling classified documents. Needless to say, Corer refused the Times\u2019 requests for comment.<\/p>\n Dry Alabama\u2019s Facebook and Twitter accounts have both been suspended as of now, but featured New Knowledge\u2019s staff faking Alabama accents in videos to impersonate conservatives, among other gems.<\/p>\n Another staff member and activist said that such dirty tactics are necessary to win elections.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t do it, you\u2019re fighting with one hand tied behind your back,\u201d <\/em>Matt Osborne told the Times. \u201cYou have a moral imperative to do this \u2014 to do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n If all of this sounds a little familiar, that\u2019s because it is. \u2018Dry Alabama\u2019 was the second campaign by New Knowledge to swing the Alabama election. Last month it was revealed that the firm also tried to smear<\/a> Moore as some kind of Russian operative by creating armies of fake Russian social media accounts to follow the Republican candidate before the election \u2013 a political death sentence in the age of \u2018Russiagate\u2019 hysteria.<\/p>\n In New Knowledge\u2019s own words, the company \u201corchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The operations weren\u2019t funded by Jones or his campaign, but by a collection of progressive donors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who donated $700,000 to American Engagement Technologies, a group run by former Obama official Mike Dickerson. AET helped finance the botnet operation, and funding for both operations was also sent by two anonymous Virginia donors through Investing in Us, a progressive organization that finances political operations.<\/p>\n New Knowledge\u2019s operations were revealed by a New York Times report published late December. In a bizarre twist, the report\u2019s author, Scott Shane, actually knew about the botnet operation long before he chose to reveal it. The journalist spoke at a conference organized by AET in September 2017, during which Dickerson outlined the \u2013 in his own words \u2013 \u201cfalse flag\u201d<\/em> campaign.<\/p>\n Shane, a veteran national security reporter, explained that attended the conference thinking it would be an earnest discussion on cybersecurity, and then kept quiet so as not to jeopardize his sources in the paranoid world of NatSec.<\/p>\n New Knowledge, on the other hand, insisted<\/a>\u00a0that their work was a research project, \u201csolely meant to deepen our understanding of how people react to new information in a hyper-partisan social media environment.\u201d<\/em> The organization has not commented on the \u2018Dry Alabama\u2019 revelation.<\/p>\n Despite helping to reveal the story, Shane helped defend New Knowledge, writing that the organization was aping \u201cRussian tactics\u201d<\/em> allegedly deployed to swing the 2016 presidential election for Trump.<\/p>\n The kicker? New Knowledge actually authored a Senate report<\/a>\u00a0on the very same \u2018Russian\u2019 meddling they engaged in themselves. New Knowledge\u2019s CEO, Jonathon Morgan, is also one of the developers of the Hamilton 68 Dashboard, a McCarthy-esque blackist that purports to monitor Kremlin trolls active on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n
Deja vu?<\/h2>\n
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\n Also on rt.com<\/span>
\n The only \u2018Russian bots\u2019 to meddle in US elections belonged to Democrat-linked \u2018experts\u2019<\/span>
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\n<\/a><\/p>\nWe\u2019re sorry, blame Russia!<\/h2>\n